Life of Dolla

A 23-year-old Atlanta-area man has been arrested and charged with the Monday afternoon (May 18) death of 21-year-old Konvict Muzik recording artist Dolla.

Aubrey Louis Berry, a resident of Snellville, GA, a suburb about 25 miles Northeast of Atlanta, is being held on $1 million bond after being arrested Monday night, Los Angeles police said in a statement today (May 19).

According to the Associate Press, Berry was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after reportedly dropping off a rental car and making his way to Terminal 1.

“As the officers approached the suspect, they asked him ‘Do you know why we’re here?’” Airport Police spokesman Sgt. Jim Holcomb told the AP. “He put his [hands] up in the air and said, ‘Yes, I’ve got a gun in my waistband. Don’t shoot me.”

The gun found on the suspects body was a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

Berry was immediately turned over to the LAPD.

According to police spokeswoman Karen Rayner, two other individuals, a man and a woman, are being questioned as “persons of interest” but have not been charged in connection with the shooting.

They were found at the airport with Berry and arrested before attempting to board a flight at LAX.

Dolla, born Roderick Anthony Burton, Jr. was fatally shot around 3:00pm Monday while waiting for his vehicle at a valet stand near the La Cienega Boulevard entrance of the Beverly Center.

Police initially believed the shooting was the result of a spontaneous argument between the two young men.

However, new evidence currently points to the theory that they knew each other, as Dolla had been a resident of Atlanta since the age of five.

Before signing to Akon’s Konvict Muzik imprint in 2007, Dolla had already experienced a certain level of success in the entertainment field.

He started his career as a member of Da Razkals Cru, a group signed to the now defunct Elektra Records.

He then landed a gig as a model for Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Sean John clothing line.

At the time of his death, Dolla was working on his debut album, Another Day, Another Dolla.

On one song, “Rainy Nights,” the young artist seems to have foreshadowed his own tragic demise, rapping “they say the good die young/ I guess I’m on my way.”

Dolla is survived by his sister Divinity, who is currently serving a prison sentence for an altercation with police; and his mother Joyce Burton, who still resides in Atlanta, where Dolla’s funeral will be held.